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20 Jul 20 - 02:41 PM (#4065112) Subject: Charley Patton wrote everything From: MandolinPaul I recently finished reading Howlin' Wolf's biography. Along with telling his life story, it also gave a lot of input into his recording sessions, live act, and his songs. Quite often it would list off the songs from recording sessions and say things like "Cryin' at Daybreak" was based on Charley Patton's song "Cryin' at Daybreak". There were a few songs like that. As I've read through other biographies, they'll make reference to how in this artist's early days, Charley Patton was a big influence, being the big act touring through the delta at that time. Based on that, and how many blues guys claim they wrote the same songs, I've decided that Charley Patton must have written all the blues. Makes sense to me! :) |
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20 Jul 20 - 03:32 PM (#4065123) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: GUEST,guest RS Then again, Patton copied/'was influenced by' others' songs - eg Banty Rooster is a version of Walter Rhodes' 'Crowing Rooster', & Tom Rushen Blues likewise 'borrows' from Ma Rainey's 'Booze & Blues' - you may need to revise your theory.. |
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20 Jul 20 - 03:36 PM (#4065125) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: MandolinPaul Walter Rhodes wrote everything? Done. Even though we don't always think of it that way, the blues is a folk music as well. I'm sure this was all passed down through the ages. Ownership of songs may still be a relatively new concept? |
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21 Jul 20 - 05:28 AM (#4065229) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: GUEST,guestRS Recommend Elijah Wald's book ' Escaping The Delta' for an interesting take/reappraisal on how we today may be mis-perceiving the nature of early blues & how it related to the pop music of its day. |
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21 Jul 20 - 08:48 AM (#4065257) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: MandolinPaul Thanks! Will check that out. |
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21 Jul 20 - 11:14 PM (#4065345) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: GUEST,Joseph Scott Basically the five or so songs that are obviously about events around him (e.g. "Mr. Purvis told Mr. Webb to let poor Charlie down" in "High Sheriff Blues") he wrote, and almost all the rest was folk material jumbled together in new orders with a few words changed (and occasionally taken off someone else's blues record rather than from folk material). Charlie mentioned to Son House that he didn't really care about lyrics, and that shows often, e.g. when he doesn't bother to make the sexual meaning in the pony stuff clear the way the version Johnny Shines learned did make it clear. He didn't care all that much about melodies either, judging from how often he reused the same ones. A friend said he spoke the same gruff way he sang, so he didn't have a choice there apparently. Some of his material is very rich from an early folk blues perspective, such as "Green River Blues." Howlin' Wolf, Booker White, and a few others we care about idolized him. He's overrated relative to a Peg Leg Howell because of the whole Mississippi mythology situation, but he's very worthwhile to look into. The jumbling mentioned above was normal and accepted in folk blues. A fraction of folk blues musicians were interested in telling a coherent chronological story in a song, but the typical approach was like poetry: evoke a mood for a while, then evoke another mood for a while. And Patton -- except in the songs he wrote -- was even less coherent than most of those poetry-like folk blues musicians. Much of this is what John Fahey figured out about Patton 50 years ago for his book on him. Attempts to undermine Fahey's points over the years (some of them based on misguided, distorted ideas of what _would_ supposedly make a folk blues musician born about 1890 "talented" or "artistic" or "important" or whatever) have been unconvincing. Singing "Green River Blues" on a street meant a lot to his audiences and rightly so, and it wasn't his job to remind us of Josh White or whoever instead. |
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22 Jul 20 - 11:45 AM (#4065448) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: MandolinPaul That's really interesting stuff, Joseph. Thanks for taking the time to share! |
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23 Jul 20 - 07:07 AM (#4065555) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: Neil D He didn't write everything, but he wrote enough to be the most important and influential of all bluesman. Jack white thinks of him as the grandfather of all modern music. |
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05 Aug 23 - 12:12 PM (#4178490) Subject: RE: Charley Patton wrote everything From: GUEST,NaplesMan Joseph Scott - you are wrong about Patton and his lyrics. Lord I am Discouraged is a beautiful song both melodically and lyrically. It’s a masterpiece. High Water Everywhere is clearly written by Patton and is another masterpiece. I’m Going Home is an amazing arrangement. Spoonful and Bol Weevil are so unique. To say Peg Leg has anything on Charley Patton really shows you have a very different view indeed. Howlin Wolf was right Charley Patton was a very bad man! |